Review of 'Vinyl Cafe Unplugged'

Vinyl Cafe Unplugged by Stuart McLean

vc_unplugged.jpg Another collection of stories from the host of CBC Radio Series “The Vinyl Cafe” following the lives of Dave, who runs a record store, his wife Morley and their children Sam and Stephanie.

The short stories here are quite amusing and often poignant pictures of everyday family life. A few of the stories:

  • “Christmas Presents” causes concern as they see their son Sam finding a passion in knitting.
  • In “Arthur” they battle with their dog over control of the bedroom…with a predictable winner.
  • A neighbour finds herself in a somewhat embarrassing situation in “The Bare Truth”.
  • “The Razer's Edge” sees Dave's attachment to an old electric shaver going to some extremes and causing some amount of trouble at the airport when the security staff don't believe that his bundle of cables is actually a device for personal hygiene.
  • The most obviously sentimental story is “Love Never Ends” where the death of a family friend leads to a touching memory by his widow.

I never listened to McLean's radio show but have heard good things about it. These melodramatic and believable stories are easy to read though, to my taste, a bit overly sentimental.

Quite a light read. Good but not great.

Rating: “Really good but I have some issues”

Review Date: 2017-02-28


Genre: General Fiction

Publisher: Granta

Publication Date: 2006

ISBN: 9781862079298